Judith Butler's Queer Theory

Queer Theory is a study that became widely known in the early 1990s, but its studies date back to as early as the 1960s. Queer Theory says we should not be defined by our gender, sexual orientation, sexual acts and personal identities, and that we should challenge the societal construct that forces us to. Although there are many scientists, sociologists, doctors and psychologists who have contributed to the study and works of Queer theory, the four that this essay focuses on are Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Alfred Kinsey and Judith Butler. Derrida,
Foucault and Kinsey all contributed separate theories, and Butler brought them together to give us one of the most basic understandings we have of Queer Theory today.

First, Jacques
Derrida believed the solution to the discourse was deconstruction. He said that we need to deconstruct our language; or in other words, pull the meanings of our words apart and ask why. Why do slut and stud mean the exact same thing, but are portrayed as two different things in reality? A woman can have sex with 20 partners and immediately be referred to as a slut. A man can have sex with 20 partners and immediately he is seen as a stud. Society needs to break down these barriers, pull apart the meanings of our language, and start asking why. Post modernism exists because of this discourse and deconstruction is the solution to modernism. Discourse can also be positive. Derrida explains how the term ‘queer’ used to be the most offensive adjective anyone could ever use for a gay human being. Through the process of positive discourse, gays have taken back the term and acknowledge its identification in a positive way. Post-modernism is important to Queer Theory because it challenges us to deconstruct the language which surrounds us and if we deconstruct our language than we can challenge its judgment and forceful binary
Because of her work it is possible to obtain a degree in Queer Studies. Her main idea is that she refuses to accept labels all together. Derrida’s deconstruction is simply not enough and society needs to talk about the “upstream” issues. You cannot simply deconstruct the language in society; you have to ask who benefits from it. You can’t purify the polluted water at the bottom of the stream, to have to go to the source at the top to fix it. We have to ask who benefits from